Quito, Ecuador

Hola Hola.
It's 9:00 pm in Quito (we are currently on Eastern time) and just returned from dinner. Ted is slaving away attaching luggage tags to our suitcases to lug downstairs in a few minutes and we will not see them until we board the cruise ship. Hopefully I laid out everything I need in the morning to get me to the Galapagos!
Anyways, our day started out this morning with breakfast at our hotel. We gorged on bread, meat, french toast, cereal, you name it, we ate it. Post breakfast we met our cruise mates in the lobby to begin our day tour of Quito. Four, smaller chartered buses, took us to various hot spots in Quito. We visited a handful of churches, their government building, and city center. A beautiful buffet lunch with the entire group was fantastic and we were even serrenaded by an Ecuadorian singer. Post lunch we traveled 30 miles to visit the Equator line. It was perfect, because after a large lunch, it was nice to hear standing at the equator causes you to weigh 1kg less..yes..that is 2.2 pounds (at least that is what we were told at any rate). We headed back to the hotel for a few hours before we boarded the buses yet again for dinner. We ate dinner with a lovely couple, Edna and Bob. They happened to be from Devonshire, England, which Ted and I visited a few years ago with my dear friend, Tracy, who was working in Derby for Rolls Royce at the time. Somewhere in the mix all of the people at this restaurant, I think our server forgot about us and our main course was brought out extremely late in comparison to all the other tables around. This in turn, caused dessert to be served even later, at the point that other tables were already heading back to the bus. Ted, Edna, and Bob were all oblivious for some reason and carried on their conversation while I kept thinking to myself, "they are going to leave us. They are going to forget about us. How will we get back?" After all tables had cleared, a tour guide showed up and asked us if we were ready to leave. Thankfully, we weren't forgotten, but I'm certain the passengers on the only remaining bus which waited for us weren't thrilled.
Signing off for the night. Tomorrow AM we take a chartered flight to the Galapagos to begin the cruise with 88 others.

Things to note about our trip thus far:
*Met a couple from Colorado who has a vacation house on the golf course in Estes Park. Small world.
*Ted and I put the average age of our tripmates at 55+. You know we have an "elderly" crowd when many of the women have quit dying their hair.
*There is only one other couple "our age". A different couple we would consider "close to our age".
*No, we are not discriminating. We are just stating fact.
*Good thing my parents didn't travel here with us. If they had, my Mom would have found a way to bring home 10 stray dogs.
*Roses are everywhere in our hotel and at restaurants. Beautiful displays in the lobby of our hotel too! A single rose in the room and a knock on the door from housekeeping who gave us a new one tonight.


Flowers at the hotel.


Weird fruit. After Ted took a plate full of food I reminded him it was not wise to eat the fresh fruit in Quito because I had no desire to take care of him if he fell ill.


There were shoe shiners all over the central square. Many of them were young boys too.


This was the cutest of the stray dogs. He became known as "Scruff".





View from the Equator monument looking to Quito.


The "close to our age" couple. And no, we weren't stalking them.


Ted tight-roping the equator line.


Britt pondering whose side she wishes to be on.


The cheap sign says it all.